ST. PETERSBURG – The Cuban Missile crisis is in full alert, but before the panic button is pushed, thinking this is Hideki Irabu II for the Global Yankees, consider the journey Jose Contreras is making.

One of mind and body.

Contreras was shelled again yesterday in an 8-3 loss to the Devil Rays, pounded for seven runs and two home runs, one by Greg Vaughn and another by Travis Lee, who once faced a harder-throwing Contreras years ago in international competition.

Contreras was again too much over the plate and up with his pitches. You can’t get away with that even against the Devil Rays. At this rate, Contreras is destined for Columbus or perhaps even the Trenton shuttle.

That may not be such a bad thing because it’s clear that Contreras is a mess. A couple of outings like this in the Bronx could send him over the edge and the Global Yankees have too much invested in the big right-hander, $32 million over four years.

“He’s got a lot going on right now,” GM Brian Cashman said. “And his location is not where it should be.”

Contreras was in the 94-mph range yesterday and until he gains better command of his pitches, he will struggle. Contreras has been working overtime on his own workout program, plus doing his daily Yankee routine and he’s probably doing too much because he has little gas left in the tank on the mound.

“You can see he’s a little tight right now,” third baseman Robin Ventura said. “He’s just got to relax.”

Contreras’ 80-year-old father is severely ill and that has taken its toll. In addition, Contreras is getting used to a dramatic change in culture. He recently completed a home video that he sent back to Cuba, showing his family what life is like in America. In Cuba, America is portrayed as a terribly dangerous place, where it’s commonplace to be killed just walking the streets. He did the video to assure his family he was safe.

Right now, getting hit by a line drive is the only danger Contreras faces.

But the day was not a total international pitching disaster for the Global Yankees.

The club came to terms with right-hander Ramon Ramirez, who is slated to start in the Florida State League. What makes this signing special is that they outbid 12 other teams for the 21-year-old reliever, who could be the next Mariano Rivera.

Ramirez, a Dominican, is taking the Alfonso Soriano route to the Yankees – via Japan and the Hiroshima Carps. The Yankees paid the Carps $350,000 for his rights and another $275,000 to Ramirez, who has been clocked at 98.

If Ramirez had been a free agent, he would have been a top five pick and commanded anywhere from $2.5 to $3 million. “We like him a lot,” Cashman said. “He’s got a good live arm and that is something we can use.”

Ramirez is represented by Bart Hernandez of Octagon Sports and just listen to how Hernandez found Ramirez last December. He didn’t see him, he heard him.

Hernandez was in the Dominican, talking to another player. He had his back to the bullpen. All of a sudden Hernandez heard this explosion of a baseball hitting the catcher’s mitt. “I thought it was the Concorde,” Hernandez said. It was Ramirez, a converted outfielder.

The Global Yankees just may have a future complement to K-Rod, Francisco Rodriguez, who burst onto the scene last season for the Angels.

For Contreras, those baseballs flying out of Progress Energy Park may have looked like the Concorde, but they were back-to-back home runs by Vaughn and Lee.

Vaughn has struggled mightily, but Lou Piniella told him before the game to forget everything and just swing. The almost-Yankee lashed three hits.

“That’s baseball,” Vaughn said. “Today I quit thinking. You have to come back in this game. If I didn’t come back every time I had a bad day I wouldn’t have made it two years in this game.”